Deficiencies in information sharing have led to unnecessary deaths in Southern Africa. Such deficiencies are said to be
even worse due to lack of knowledge and appropriate communication systems.
SADC countries are addressing the issue.
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Five hours after a quake struck northwestern Sumatra, Indonesia,triggering a massive tsunami with a series
of waves that quickly travelled through the Indian Ocean, some African countries were hit.
Somalia was among the countries affected. Others were South Africa, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania.
Tanzania, which lost 13 citizens, believes that the movement of the tsunami waves would have allowed enough time for
warning to, especially, affected countries but there was no any such kind of warning until the disaster struck,
resulting into deaths.
Faced with this lack of information, Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries
have realized the need for information sharing in all aspects of disaster prevention, preparedness and response.
Coming to the aid of the 13-nation grouping is Inwent, a German capacitybuilding organization which seeks to fill
the information gap among SADCcountries.
Inwent organized a “Regional Training Plan for Information Management” from 19 to 22 April 2005 in
Tanzania.
Information “key” to successful measures against disasters.
The event, which took place in the coastal town of Bagamoyo (exit harbour for slaves - a disaster to humanity), was a
capacity building come together in sector-crossing information management for trans-boundary disaster prevention
and preparedness.
Opening the workshop, Rose Lugembe, Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office in Tanzania, said
disaster management depended on fast and accurate information collection and dissemination. “The reason for this
school of thought lies in the fact that information is key to any successful implementation of measures against
disasters,” she said.
Ms Lugembe said the impacts of the year 2000 floods in Mozambique could have been reduced had people been furnished
with prior information about their vulnerability to imminent floods in their areas of residence.
She said although the 26 December 2004 earthquake and tsunami had taken place some 5,000 kilometres away, it affected Tanzania,
leading to the death of 13 people.
“These two examples indicate deficiencies in terms of information and its dissemination to people. Deficiencies
in trans-boundary information sharing are even worse due to lack of knowledge and appropriate communication systems. We
must find a way to overcome this through organized mechanisms and plan of implementation,” she prodded
participants.
SADC regional training plan ready
Sussane Breuer, the Berlin-based Inwent project manager, said the world became aware of the importance of disaster
reduction because of the tsunami which had happened days before the start of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction
in Kobe, Japan, in January this year.
“The world became aware of the importance of measures about risks, preparedness measures and a functioning early warning system crucial to avoidance
or at least mitigation of such disastrous impacts of natural disasters,” Ms Breuer said.
She added: “Here again, we have seen: There were experts who knew about the event in time, but there was no
information system or structure to send the important warning to responsible authorities, let alone to the affected
people.”
Referring to the workshop, Ms Breuer said a lot of good ideas had been developed in this “golden age”, adding
that Inwent would soon begin the planning for the next steps.
Mr Florian Bemmerlein-Lux, an expert on disaster management, said the workshop in Bagamoyo came finally to at least three
good results. “The training plan is ready and the first three courses will be implemented. Enough material was
collected to start writing concepts for a project proposal as soon as the call for
proposals is out,” he said.
Mr Bemmerlein-Lux, who is based in Nürnberg, Germany, runs a consultancy firm called “Eco-Institutional Development Consult”.
The workshop in Bagamoyo was a continuation of a process which began in Pretoria, South Africa, in August 2004.The process sought to develop a regional
training plan for information management in disaster risk management.
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